Compilations: Century Media Sampler 2004

It's a short one today. I am in the process of moving and I found some promos and other compilations that I forgot that I owned. I am pretty sure this came along with the Shadows Fall album The War Within, which I bought when it came out. It is only made up of five songs, but I had not heard of any of these groups at the time I got this sampler.

GOD FORBID: "THE ANTIHERO"
At this time, God Forbid had a more metalcore-ish sound than their current one. The band was actually a little bit better when they were a metalcore band. Their more recent album is not as impressively energetic as this track. Of course, Byron Davis has always had a powerful voice. This isn't bad. I don't think I have listened to this since I bought either of the albums I own by God Forbid. I would not say this influenced me to look into them though. Some impressive riffing and soloing make this a pretty damn good song.

THE HAUNTED: "ALL AGAINST ALL"
I have never really been as big a fan of The Haunted as the Bjorler brothers' previous band At The Gates. This song is a hell of a fast one. It's a bit more geared toward thrash metal than the melodic death of At The Gates. The Haunted has always been closer to thrash. It's not a bad track. For some reason, I just never got into The Haunted. Maybe that will change after hearing this one again.

DIECAST: "MEDIEVAL"
Not a metal band, but rather a very melodic metalcore group. Some decent clean singing, but the harsh vocals are pretty bad. This is pretty bad actually. I vaguely recall something else by this band that was not bad. This is just too generic though.

HEAVEN SHALL BURN: "THE WEAPON"
Heaven Shall Burn is a metalcore band from Germany, but they are actually one of the better ones out there. This band injects a fair bit of melodic death metal into their metalcore style. The riffs are pretty damn heavy, impressive and a little odd for the style of music. This is pretty decent and it does not sound like all the other metalcore bands out there.

STAMPIN' GROUND: "BEAR THE SCARS"
Kind of a stupid name. Stampin' Ground plays hardcore sort of like Hatebreed but with more Slayer influence. I suppose you could make an argument that this band is or is not metal based on the riffing. I don't really know. I am not much of a fan of the Hatebreed sound, so this really does not do much for me. It's okay, but why listen to this, when you can listen to Hatebreed? And FYI, I do not like Hatebreed, so I will pass.